AWESOME-tober-fest 2017: The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2014)

Here we are, the home stretch of AWESOME-tober-fest 2017. Usually, for the last week run up to Halloween I’ll do what’s called “Greatest Hits” articles where I’ll revisit previous topics I’ve done before like Dracula, werewolves and Frankenstein. However, this is the 10th year so I thought I’d do something different. This week, I’m covering things I’ve not yet had a chance to cover for AWESOME-tober-fest. Things I’ve always wanted to cover. Things like witches, Bigfoot and the Devil. So, let’s get started with a topic that I very nearly used the last two years. Witches.

Today for witches, I decided to cover the Archie horror comic, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. It’s a sister comic to the popular Afterlife with Archie. It seems not as many people are talking about this comic plus I believe the CW just announced they are spinning off a show called The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina from their popular Riverdale show. I haven’t seen Riverdale yet, but from what I read they are adapting this comic for the TV show. Which really makes me interested to check out Riverdale.

Anyway, back to the comics. I’ve read the first volume of Afterlife and I liked how they totally re-imagined the Riverdale characters. It was just solidly written, and drawn, so when I saw they were doing the same to Sabrina, I jumped on board.

This comic is very similar in tone to Afterlife. It’s dark. It’s gruesome in parts. It leans heavily on the witch-y origins of Sabrina, her aunts and her father. Sabrina is a half witch. Her father was a warlock and her mother was mortal. It’s very much a coming of age as she tries to adapt to school with a boyfriend and in her other life as a burgeoning witch. She’s forced to make several decisions about her life and she has to deal with the gruesome consequences.

I really like it. It’s different. It’s interesting. I’ll be interested to see how the CW adapts this material because from what I can understand they are going with the “witches are real” angle. I like the comics’ “ancient order of witches” backstory including old world laws and even a Witches’ Council but I find it hard to believe that the CW will lean as heavily on the “witches communing and serving the devil” aspect as the comic does. That’ll be a delicate dance to do for a young adult TV show.

I don’t think the events in this comic exist within the same universe as Afterlife. We get appearances in this comic from Betty and Veronica a few times, Archie, Reggie and even Jughead shows up in a quick cameo. Plus I know Sabrina shows up in Afterlife in at least one issue but I don’t know the context. So there’s lots of crossover but I think they are separate universes. One being inspired by the other.

That being said, I can definitely recommend giving this title a try. Especially if you’ve tried the Afterlife title and like it.

One Response to “AWESOME-tober-fest 2017: The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2014)”

Interesting. I hadn’t read any reviews of the comic, so cool to hear you liked it. Sort of surprised the bubblegum Archie and Sabrina comics were re imagined in these ways, but also surprised that it is apparently clicking with fans. You just never know!